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Hi guys and gals,
This is Pedro. Just wanted to introduce my self and from tiime to time my wife Lyn might get on to catch up. Josh is to young unless you like streams of 2yr old chatter. lol.
We have just bought our land in Camden Acres and have decided to build with Wisdom Homes. We chose the Manhattan 36 the home for us. This is our first build and are finding it very stressfull yet satisfying so far with the thought that we will have what we want as the end result. Wisdom have been very good and pretty flexible so far with what can be done structurly, however like everything else any change you make is EXPENSIVE. we are still waiting on our tender to come back so we can sit down and nut it all out. In our research (which the feedback from this forum has been very helpful) we have discovered things that arent exactly fantastic. I'm finding that its all the little things that are challenging, like internal paint colour. you can only choose one and this is for walls and timber works and doors. Am i the only one who thinks this is dumb? and to get like plain white for timber and doors its like an extra $500 because its different to wall colour. We have chosen their upgrade package which we did find good, however I feel that if you buy a companies best product then it should be finished as such. Any way, we love the house and know we are still gonna have to work on it when they have finished with it to individualise it to us. Just didnt wanna have to do that again (rennovated last time).
I would love any help, tips and tricks and info about my builder. Anyone building this house with pics i would love to see them. Would love to speak to anyone living in the area where we are building as we will be new to it. it does look like a lovely area.
anyhoo thats me to date , look forward to catching up with everyone and will keep you posted.
Best news is my land is flat as anything so site cost will be good
ciao for now.
Welcome, Just be aware that your site costs may not be good because your land is flat-it will depend on what soil type & stability you have. Our block is very flat but we still had to pay extra for the slab because of the clay soil. Hopefully this will not be the case for you.
Thank you, by this i think you mean that an upgraded slab from "M"class will be needed. Is that an expensive excercise?
Depends on what is required. The total cost would depend on your soil report and the size of your home. As I said-hopefully you will have a "M"slab.
lol just realised how green i am at this. OF COURSE its an expensive excersize it will cost you X and our 100% markup. lol at least i told the estate person that till my tender comes through a delayed settlement needs to be incurred because i need both the tender and land contract to submitt to bank so they can organise restructure of existing approval.hehehe me not too silly. They agreed with a refundable deposit.
lol my son just woke up and saw your profile pic and screaming doooooooraaaaaa niiiiiimoooooo. and smashing my laptop screen. he loves them. Have to find his big Nemo to sleep with now and put him back to bed.
thank you for your advise. i now remember reading some ppl having trouble with unexpected Sand stone and fixture problems due to soil and what ****** beneath. will keep my fingers crossed.
Catch up soon, boy finished bottle need to put to bed.
Thank you for the warm welcome.
All the best pedro-and glad that your son enjoyed the profile pic!
Hey pedro!
Yes - the paint changes are expensive - we didn't end up doing any feature walls etc - we'll do them ourselves for 25% of the cost.
I found everything in the upgrade package has been good - I've been happy with the upgraded sinks etc. They make money on buying in bulk - so of course, if you want to change something (like my shower head) - it's a pricey upgrade (try $850-900 each).
I haven't seen anyone with a manhattan 36, someone is building the bigger one across the road from us (but it's only at slab stage)
In Sydney most slabs end up being H class - it was about $2-3k extra - not too bad. Try the blog list - there are plenty of us who have built with Wisdom Homes.
Hi Pedro,
We are looking at building a Manhattan with Wisdom as well! Still waiting for the final tender to come back to us and yes those extra changes cost. I've found that we will compromise on standard house items which can be changed later on but pay for those things which can't be changed. The big ticket items for us have been an upstairs balcony, aircon, taller ceilings, doors and windows.
With the paint we are going to go with a white and then paint ourselves those walls, etc which need changing. We painted our current home and I found painting the ceilings and stairway a pain in the xxxx, so I'm more than happy to go with a basic colour then change a few walls with a different colour later on. We are going to leave the standard built in's and change later on for the electrics I'll have the wiring in place for my brother to install what we want after handover.
WOW thats some expensive shower head. i am probably going to cop the $500 in paint but only if the slab doesnt have to be upgraded. i know what you mean about the balcony. i have chosen avanti facade to get bigger balcony at front to take advantage of our gorgouse vews, but at the back we chose to put a small Romeo and Juliette balcony which i thought was good value for what they quoted me. i didnt opt to get bigger ceilings on top floow though, didnt think of it at time.... tender still to happen though might try squeeze them for that.
i have also opted to take out walls of rear rumpus and make it all alfresco, put a steal beam in right across meals and family to allow support for stacker doors from one side to the other. bargained with them to slab the lot (they intended on leaving it dirt) lol not on my watch, its broom finished slab ready for tile. the dilema i got is that the family room adjoining the meals, is that enough room to sit and entertain when raining. i will of course eventually cafe blind the alfresco but that room is my only headache.
i found the aircon competetive, but when you got a cousin to do it alot cheaper i asked them to just install the droppings in and ill take care of the rest.. well they quoted me $5g to do that, realising that they wont let anyone else on site till handover they got you by the b****. my cousin told me he charges 1800 to put droppings in on a house like that. i have to cop it cause bottom floor almost impossible to install droppers after hand over. So im told. They use acton motors and just to let you know i have been told they are an awsome unit.
What size Manhattan are you building and what facade did you go with?
Hi Pedro,
Would love to elaborate on our experience with your builder however we are bound by our building contract that states we are not to participate in forums or even write up a blog on on building experience without their express written permission.
I'm pretty much a lurker on this forum due to the restrictions of our contract.
You are organised Pedro. We are going with the Nova Terrace facade, Manhattan 42 (with extended rumpus). I'm glad you've heard good things about Acton airconditioners, I have no idea and need to trust what I'm told. It sounds great what you are doing, you've put plenty of thought into it. I'm a timber lover, so for the alfresco I'm putting in a Merbau deck after handover, the timber is just too expensive to have it included in the tender with all the extra costs. We chose the Manhattan design largely because of the back balcony - we are maximising on our views out back.
ok. melly i am gonna ask you about the weather where you are.... is it good or bad...wink wink lol.
poohbear im still a novice and need lots of help. i love timber aswell i will be going Bali have already picked everything. and ill be doing most of it myself... its funnnnnnnnn. so yes lots of bamboo, decking, ponds, buddah statues and a waterfall and walkover bridge and Bali huts.
our views are from front but thought i would like a smoke after conceiving child number 3, lol thats why wanted little balcony at back.... to smoke and hide the alchahole.lol
Hi Pedro or should I say neighbour as we live in Camden Acres! We built with Cavalier Homes & have been here nearly 6 weeks now. What stage is your land in? We are in stage 2 opposite the golf course. It is a lovely place to live, I have two dogs & it is a great place to walk around. I have also found everyone that lives around here to be very friendly.I think you are the only other person on H1 to be building at Camden Acres but there are a few at Spring Farm. Funny we nearly went with Wisdom (Aspiration design) but in the end Cavalier were a bit more flexible & their upgrades were much more reasonable.You also get 2 feature walls (same colour) at no charge. We had no unexpected site costs & it was a M class slab.
I have noticed there are a lot of Wisdom houses getting built in this estate. You can check out my thread & blog for more info & please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
It's a bit exciting having someone else building here!
Cheers,
Loretta
WOW ive seen your house, lol we stalked the area looking at colours. and im in stage 2, ill give you a hint. my block has the big green box in it lol.
and yes i noticed your house because i chose the same front door. off memory its 1240x2400. the person that sold me the land is building behind me.... so she cant rip me off or ill throw burt pork chops from the bbq on her roof hahahaha. thats enough hint you should get it now.
your house is lovely... hmmmmmm maybe i should shop my builder.... who do i speak to?
and what house for 36-38squares.
Thought you may have seen it in your travels as it's not a very big estate.Funny we did the same thing driving around getting ideas on bricks, colour schemes & driveways. So are you near the older house & there is a house getting built behind? I think it would be a good idea to see what Cavalier can offer you.Go to the display home in Camden Acres & see Craig or Wayne, they are brothers & are the builders who own the business.That's what we liked about them you are dealing direct with the builders & Wayne is also the ss.They have different designs but we liked the Jenmark because of the long balcony to take in the golf course view & verandah under. We also found that there site & tender costs were less than Wisdom's. In the end I guess it comes down to who has the design that you want & who you feel comfortable building with.
Good luck,
Loretta
We have the largest actron unit and are very happy (though we got a really good price on the a/c from Wisdom but I've heard it's much more expensive now). A few people have got Wisdom to do the ducting and got the motor etc after handover to save $$.
Hi Pedro!
Good luck with the building process!
Hey Pedro, I just read your blog
it was so lovely, if you're ever feeling any stress over your build you know where to come. We'll listen and try to help if you ever need it
you go fella!